View full sizeOur Lady of the Valley School students Evan Dascher and Demetri Matta (both with safety goggles) watch as a UA student volunteer prepares to launch one of their rockets in the Bottle Rocket event at the UA Science Olympiad regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Feb. 18, 2011. (Chris Pow / al.com)

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- Close to 500 middle and high school students competed today in the University of Alabama Science Olympiad regional for the chance to try their skills in a state tournament.

The students, from 18 middle schools and 12 high schools across the state, had the chance to participate in 23 events in each division that drew on physics, geology, astronomy, anatomy and other scientific disciplines.

On the Quad Saturday morning, middle school students waited their turn to blast water rockets made from plastic bottles to see how much airtime they could get once they were launched by UA student volunteers using pressure from a bicycle pump.

Evan Dascher and Demetri Matta, both middle school students at Our Lady of the Valley School in Shelby County, said they spent two days building their rockets up to the Science Olympiad guidelines after seeing a design they liked at an invitational meet.

View full sizeOur Lady of the Valley School students Evan Dascher and Demetri Matta with their rockets on the UA Quad during the University of Alabama Science Olympiad regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Feb. 18, 2012. (Chris Pow / al.com)

The students' rockets, both formed with a long cone of plastic sheeting around a one-liter bottle and a ping-pong ball at the top, came in a close second. Dascher and Matta, both competing in their first Science Olympiad regional, said they were happy with how they performed.

Our Lady of the Valley science teacher and Science Olympiad coach Ann Stevens said the national science standards-based program gives students more than a regular classroom experience.

"I can't even estimate how much more science that child is going to learn, how much better that child going to high school is going to be prepared," Stevens said. "They learn leadership, cooperative skills, teamwork, responsibility. So it just enhances what your science program is going to learn."

Science Olympiad has become a popular extracurricular activity at the school. Seventy-two Our Lady of the Valley students, nearly half of their middle school, traveled with parent mentors and coaches to participate in the event.

"We work hard, but we've always said it's got to be student-driven," Stevens said. "There are captains, they have responsibilities. They actually set up the practice schedule. When we have extra practices, it's because usually the other students have asked for them."

Teams from the school have made the state tournament for the last 15 years and have been to nationals five times. Last year, one of their teams placed 23rd in the national tournament.

Three of five Our Lady of the Valley teams took the top three positions for the middle school division this year. In the high school division, LAMP teams finished first and second and a team from Holy Spirit Catholic School placed third.

Those teams will move on to compete in the state tournament set to be held at Huntingdon College in Montgomery on March 10.

Science Olympiad, a national nonprofit organization focused on improving
science education, holds more than 240 regional and state tournaments a
year. The University of Alabama regional is hosted each year by the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences.